G.O.P. Bill Proposes Check On Whether Voter Is a Citizen

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

Published: February 27, 1998

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26—
Saying they are rankled by their inability to detect and stamp out voter fraud, Republican House leaders plan to push legislation next month that would toughen voter registration by requiring some sort of check on a person's citizenship.

The effort comes two weeks after a House committee concluded that a contested California election, which a Democrat won, was marred by the votes of noncitizens. But Republicans were unable to find enough evidence of voter fraud to overturn the election. They argued that was largely because it was difficult to pinpoint a voter's citizenship status.

By seizing on the issue of citizenship in voting, Republican leaders hope to bait Democrats into a debate that would portray them as beholden to an electoral system riddled with fraud, Republican pollsters say. And they would help mute the concerns of a core group of conservatives, mostly from California, who have been demanding action since former Representative Robert K. Dornan, a California Republican, challenged the results of the 1996 election in which he failed to win a 10th term. Mr. Dornan argued in an unsuccessful petition filed last year that voting by illegal aliens had contributed to his defeat.

Referring to the moves by Republican leaders, John Pitney, a former deputy director of the Republican National Committee, said: ''It's a combination of gut fear over ballot fraud and of elements within the party who are ideologically concerned about this issue and the issue of illegal immigrants.''

But the action, which is largely symbolic, could prove risky: Republicans may wind up alienating Hispanic voters, a group they have aggressively courted since the large-scale defection by those voters in 1996, strategists say.

''Their point is that it might be politically risky to do, but it's the right thing to do,'' said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster. ''They think it's an argument worth having.''

Already, Democrats and a long list of advocacy groups are mounting an extensive campaign to defeat the bills, which they say have been based on a false premise: that voter fraud is rampant. They accuse Republicans of trying to frighten away Democratic-leaning Hispanic voters from the polls and of trying to undermine the 1993 legislation that allowed voters to register by mail or while obtaining a driver's license. The ''Motor Voter Law'' brought the Democratic Party millions of new voters. On the application, people must swear under penalty of perjury that they are United States citizens, but they do not have to produce passports or birth certificates.

''They want to create unwarranted fear of the Hispanic community in the eyes of our fellow Americans,'' Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, said on the House floor recently. ''I am not in the business of giving advice to Newt Gingrich, but let me say this: Latino voters are American voters. When we vote, we remember who stood with us and who stood against us.''

House Republicans have been careful to couch the debate in patriotic tones that explore the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Bristling at Democratic efforts to paint them as racist, Republicans say their revamped effort to tighten up voter registration has nothing to do with race or ethnicity.

''All we are saying is an American citizen's right to vote is one of their most precious rights,'' Speaker Newt Gingrich said in a recent debate on one of the citizenship bills. ''How can we cancel out an American citizen with a noncitizen and not feel that we are somehow cheating the essence of freedom in America? This bill is about citizenship. It is about citizens being allowed to vote.''

Opponents say the bills are unnecessary and will be difficult to carry out. One bill would enlist the Social Security Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in checking a person's citizenship. But neither agency welcomes the added duties. The immigration service, for example, keeps records of people who are naturalized citizens, but not native-born residents.

Democrats maintain that adding this extra hurdle would discourage people from voting, or at worst, infringe on privacy rights and lead to discrimination against people with Hispanic or Asian surnames.

''If Democrats want to differ on this issue, we'll be glad to take them on,'' said Cliff May, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. ''But the idea that our trying to keep the voting honest is directed somehow against minority groups is outrageous and insulting, not just to us but to minority groups.''

In March, House leaders are expected to package some voter fraud measure along with broad-based campaign spending legislation. It would allow states to verify the citizenship of people who want to register to vote, or in some cases, who have already registered.

Many consider the legislation to be largely symbolic because the Senate is not likely to take up a companion bill and President Clinton is even less likely to sign it.

The Republican rush to tighten voter registration took Democrats by surprise. On Feb. 12, just after the House voted to end its investigation of Representative Loretta Sanchez's victory over Mr. Dornan Republicans quickly brought the first proposal to the floor under a special procedure to test sentiment on the issue. The bill permitted five states to verify the citizenship status of voters under a pilot program.

The procedure required a two-thirds majority for passage and the bill fell well short. But there were 210 yes votes and 200 no votes, a sign Republicans were looking for. It was the sort of narrow margin that worries advocacy groups.